(FILES) In this file photo taken on February 1, 2018 US President Donald Trump walks across the South Lawn upon return to the White House in Washington, DC. US President Donald Trump publicly attacked the FBI's leadership on February 2, 2018, accusing them of politicizing their investigations in favor of Democrats as he gets set to approve the release of an explosive memo alleging the agency's abuse of power.The extraordinary accusation is the latest salvo in the president's open conflict with the top US law enforcement agency amid an investigation into possible Trump campaign collusion with a Russian effort to sway the 2016 presidential elections.MANDEL NGAN / AFP/Getty Images

The doors of the U.S. government were blown wide open Friday with the release by the Republicans in Congress of an explosive since-declassified memo that alleges the FBI abused its authority to purposefully undermine Donald Trump’s election campaign as well as his presidency.

The FBI cried foul, of course, claiming the memo was edited and jerry-rigged by a White House operative in order to sabotage the integrity of the agency’s investigation into Russian election-meddling and kneecap an adjacent inquiry by special counsel Robert Mueller.

“As expressed during our initial review (of the memo), we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy,” the FBI said in its statement.

Mueller, of course, has been tenacious in his zeroing-in on Trump’s alleged collusion with the Russians in order to disrupt the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

As the once-secret memo circulated among select eyes in Congress, conservatives were saying the four-page document contained “explosive revelations” that could take the heat off the Trump White House.

Iowa Congressmen Steve King, for example, compared the allegations in the document to the scandal that brought down U.S. President Richard Nixon, saying they’re “worse than Watergate.”

It was a poor analogy, of course. but sufficiently hyperbolic.

The intrigue was further heightened and complicated when Adam Schiff, the top Democrat in the House intelligence committee, agreed with the FBI’s “grave concerns” because the committee’s vote to release the memo to Trump for review was now invalid because it was “secretly altered” by the Republicans after the vote had been taken.

The number of bouncing balls, however, makes for confusing times.

Is the FBI corrupt? Did it side with the Obama Department of Justice to sabotage Trump and assist Clinton when it became apparent her 2016 presidential campaign was out of control and headed for the ditch?

Or, as the FBI alleged in its warning to the White House not to release the contentious document, the Trump Administration cherry-picked the document’s contents in order to create what then became an altered memo to disparage the agency, and that there was no hook upon which to hang such a hat?

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer weighed in by placing the blame squarely on House Speaker Paul Ryan, stating that if Ryan “cares about the integrity of the House, or the rule of law, he will put an end to this charade once and for all.”

Trump meanwhile maintained Friday the memo proved to Americans of the rot within the system.

“A lot of people should be ashamed of themselves,” he said. “I think it’s terrible. You want to know the truth? I think it’s a disgrace.”

Schiff, of course, was livid over the document’s release.

“This is designed to impugn the credibility of the FBI to undermine the investigation, to give the president additional fodder to attack the investigation,” he said. “And it’s a tremendous disservice to the American people.”

According to right-leaning Daily Wire, Republicans have to now decide which fork in the road to take now that the memo is out.

Most importantly, they must “distinguish between FBI malfeasance on Clinton from allegations about FBI malfeasance on Trump-Russia.”

Otherwise, it says, the Republicans will be “rightly accused of politicizing the investigation into the FBI to protect Trump, rather than investigating nefarious activity inside the FBI that needs cleansing.”

Indeed, it’s a cluster-implosion of the first order, and all is forgiven to anyone who cannot follow all the bouncing balls.

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